My white whale

[NLC]

Something kinda cool happened a week and a half ago . I received a call from a well connected friend . He was one of the donators of an event at the Simi valley Skatelab on sat 2/4 for his old childhood friend . He asked if I'd like to do a few decks for the event that he could front for me . I went for it and felt a bit under pressure for the time line deadline of the event . I haven't skipped so many corners , or made so many mistakes for 3 years as I did on this project . I waited anxiously for a call about how things went , but waited and waited . Today , tuesday I got the call . The auction piece I put up went for $500 and the hardcore Popsicle I made got fallen in love with at the start . Over all , a mind bending and career changing point in time for me .

[weasel on fire]

i actualy was there and bid on that deck, hoping that nobody knew what it was really worth, but then was sorely mistaken as i backed down after $100 and watched it go on for another 3 min, it was an absolutely amazing deck man, how much do they normaly go for? i think the auction drove it up a but more than normal, and the great paint job surely helped

[NLC]

Is a weasel on fire anything like a ferret on fire ? Got plenty of wild ferrets around here . Just a thought . As for the average going price , WELL , if you knew or I knew , we'd both have to die . There is no real going price set at the moment . But it was a delight to see what others thought it was worth . The art was done by Jays' child hood chum Vercelli . Hope you got to meet him . A real nice , low key kinda guy , and a true master of color combos and curves of a line . Also , one of the few Dogtown font artist that are originally from Venice . I say this in the respect that Wes , and Craig are the god of dogtown art ( as I see it ) , but there are still a few other very respected artist from the time and place such as Vercelli .

[weasel on fire]

i did actualy get to shake his hand, great guy

[Cwazy Nick-E]

Who painted the first board with the surfer?
It looks like you colaborate with a lot of artists, that's really awesome, and gets some nice diversity.
Glad to see your stuff is going so well.
Those boards have to be some of the nicest skateboards I have ever seen, and I know the rest of the skateboard world thinks that as well, equaling a lot of $$$$$$ for you

[Lit]

i smell a poser. if you're really from Hawaii you'd know that those are mongoose and not ferrets.
your boards are pretty, i give you that, they are very purty. but your reply to the person who asked "how much?" came across as "if you have to ask, you cant afford it". which was kinda lamb. i also saw something regarding a price of $250.00 min? for a pool deck?
you think ppl. will ride a pool deck that cost that much? i dont.
1 bad landing and that thing is in 2 pieces. if anything it'll be another art board hanging on the wall. plz dont get me wrong, i like art as well as the next man. but in all reality, thats what your boards are...
do you even skate?

[SpookTheHamster]

Nice boards, carbon fibre is super sexy.

Psst, don't let chemicalanarchy see that surfer, he'll kill you.

[shapeshifter]

congrats on the opportunity. sure seems like an honor to be able to make a contribution. guess money isn't an option when it comes to this sort of thing but what's money anyway...

it's a nice board, i guess, though i myself wouldn't put carbon on the outside of a pool or street deck except for the "cool" factor. guess with the painting it ain't meant to be ridden. but what do i know...

[Directive0]

but what do i know...

A hell of a lot more then you usually let on!

NLC: Awesome work dude, you earned those props! Looking forward to seeing more of your work on here inpiring the rest of us!

[Nepptune]

i also saw something regarding a price of $250.00 min? for a pool deck?
you think ppl. will ride a pool deck that cost that much? i dont.
1 bad landing and that thing is in 2 pieces. if anything it'll be another art board hanging on the wall.

Ok, this is none of my business....
Thats never stopped me before.
NLC has only done custom decks for a lucky few. The main reason he has no set price is, he has never gone public setting a retail price for this stuff.

250.00 is not unreasonable when you consider these decks have lots of material costs. A surfboard, or snowboard made with anythng similar would reflect that cost as well ( 1000.00 surfboard).

I am sure as things catch on the price will be determined and probably remain reasonable considering what you are getting.

Carbon fibre is pricey! Ask anyone who has ever had to get a prosthetic, a boat, a board...anything made with it.

As for the strength thing. I have never ridden on of these decks, but I can tell you that he is constantly re-designing his cores and construction methods just for this reason. I belive this design has a place in skateboarding.

When you consider that Jeff Ho can make a 1000.00 deck out of a blank popcicle and a couple of spray paint cans...this can easily find a place in the skateboarding world.

The most important thing is that these are made in Hawaii by 1 guy!
Not in China by women and children.

Support this kind of thing, as well as anyone else who comes up with useful and original ideas. It is important to skateboarding.

Mark my words, there are people out there already trying to copy this. They are only concerned with profits, and how they can take yet another American made product to China.

What he said 8)

Amazing work NLC...whether you call it art, a skateboard, whatever, its a thing of beauty and I think its awesome.


Props man, look forward to seeing more and to being inspired to make my own boards. Thank you

[NLC]

To lit , are you having a bad day , you seem a little grumpy . Your right , mongoose not ferrets . I can never remember what to call em . As regards the price , nothing is settled yet , as the design is constantly in a state of refinement . Partain was riding the flower Buttons Hawaii deck at the Skatelab function for Jay and seemed to like it . Jay has three of my decks and the boards have been ridden and tested by well over 200 individuals , over the last four years . Some of the testers have been some of our pros legends and industry leaders . I've been very fortunate to keep the company that I do and thus have had some very nice things happen along the way , such as getting to do a few decks for cali last weekend , which enlightened me to new ideas . As for the integrity of the bowl decks , it's true that some of them brake after a few days , but only after an intense arial assault by stand out riders . Besides them , I have customers that have gotten well over a year out of their decks .
The deal with the surfer flowery board is that it's a rice paper laminate . To be able to have Mark Partain ride one of my decks , I needed to put his current sponsors graphic on , which is Buttons Hawaii . And yes , his board did break on monday , but only after a sever aerial beating which began last week in Hawaii at the Graveside bowl - a very rough tight gnarly bowl . I've got one rider that can break a new wood deck on each run if he so chooses . A decks strength is a rather subjective issue . More plays into how you ride and treat your equipment . The plan has already been made to do a month of prototype work with Partain and a few others during the next month . Perhaps that could be a thread . And if any are wondering , rail mounts are already in the works for the upcoming bowl models . C miller and others have mentioned how icy carbon/epoxy can be on steel coping , how sticky it can get on silly sauced coping and how much it feels like brake linings on raw concrete coping . Rails seem to be the answer .

[NLC]

Oh ya , one more answer to LITs' so politely and eloquently asked question , " do you skate ? " . Why yes I do ..... This happenned just a day before I was gonna sesh with Mountain , Patch , Alva , Burnquist , Adams , Martinez , Nicole Zuch , Cara Beth , Heidi Fitzgerald and her man Jimmy the Greek and many others at a private bowl . Hope that answers your question LIT . --- NLC

[I hate Cops.]

i would die just to skate with alva or any of them! u lucky piece of poo

[NLC]

I was in the hospital the weekend when everybody was in town . I worked hard to get permission to be around all weekend , dawn to dusk , for the agsj and I blew a really fun opportunity by getting hurt . So far I've skated with about half of the people mentioned . And yeah , I cried a little not getting to skate with Alva . I love those high wall slide turns he's so good at . But I'm sure there will be other opportunities in the future .

[Pepperoniquesadilla]

damn that looks like it hurt (im thankful ive never gotten stitches) but anyway those are some nice boards...great artwork

[NLC]

What you got some cobalt chrome in ya too ? Your looking at a seven pinner . The worst the doc had seen all year . What made it bad was that I dislocated on the way down and the bottom of the fall did the break . My foot had dislocated completely to the side of the ankle and was at a 45 degree angle when viewed from the front . Had my own little freak show going on for three hours in the e.r. Staff kept coming into my little side room and lifting the hanky covering the oddity and going , ' hey larry , you gotta come see this ' . I should have been charging admission . The ankles fine now , but the rest of me feels old .

[NLC]

OOOOUUUUUHH ...

[Pepperoniquesadilla]

im in pain just thinking about that....im glad to say i havent broken a bone either...must be all the milk i drink ...but no matter how hard i fall nothing ever seems to happen...and as crazy as it sounds my wrist bent a rly thick racing bike brake lever when i had a head on with my friend...my wrist was fine but the brake lever had to be replaced

[shapeshifter]

got a buddy who has this genetic thing going where he only seems to get green stick fractures and when the break heals it's almost like it wants to grow another limb... i've seen the kid do cartwheels in a capsule bowl and come out unphazed. think he's now doing paramilitary work in some east block country.

[Lit]

k sry bout the poser crack NLC. i have no right to diss and for that i apologize. i think i'm just jealouse knowing i'll never beable to own one of your boards. or maybe i'm anti-cf pool board. inanycase, plz excuse my rudeness..

p.s. i didnt post this because of all the names you dropped :P